Improved match-safe



A. KLINE.

, Match. Safe.

Patented Feb. 18, 1862.

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N. PETERS. m'mumo n um Wmhinglon, D. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

A. KLINE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED MATCH-SAFE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 34,431, dated February18, 1862.

of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, 1

have invented a new and useful Improvement in Match-Safes; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the construction and operation of thesame,referencebeinghadtotheaccompanying drawings, making a partof thisspecification, in which Figure l is a perspective View, and Fig. 2 acentral vertical section, of a safe having my improvement applied, likeletters indicating the same parts when in both figures.

The nature of this invention consists, substantially as hereinafterdescribed and specified, in providing a match-safe with a selfclosinglid, which while it is constructed to swing inward from the pressure ofones hand or fingers entering the safe will also close automatically byswinging upward or outward on the withdrawal of the hand or fingers,Wherebywhile the safe thus affords ready and easy access at all times toits interior the possibility of its being accidentally or inadvertentlyleft open to the access of flies, cockroaches, mice, and other vermin iseffectually prevented in a more certain manner.

The drawings represent the safe as provided in its form and dimensionsfor matches, A being the body, and B the self-closing lid.

The safe in this instance is made of tinplate and closed permanently atevery part except theupper portion of its front, in which portion thelid B is suspended by a hingejoint I), so as to swing clearly betweenthe two sides of the body A, as seen in the drawings. To the inner sideof the lid B, near the middle of its upper portion, there is fixed abent arm or lever 17 which is connected by a spring 0, which in thisinstance is a ring of vulcanized gum, to ahook a fixed to the back ofthe body A on the inner side and about opposite to the center of the lidB, so that the action of the said spring 0 will constantly tend to keepthe lower edge of the said lid B in contact with the inner side of theupper edge of the front plate a of the body of the safe, as seen in Fig.2.

In the operation of this invention it will be seen that when the lid Bshall be thrust inward by ones hand or fingers introduced to take outone or more of the matches D therein it and its arm 6 will approach thepositions indicated by the dotted lines 1 2, and that as the hand orfingers shall be withdrawn the action of the spring 0, through thelever-arm b on the lid B, will close the safe, and there fore it will bemanifest that it can never be accidentally or inadvertently left open tothe dangerous depredations of mice.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to claim, broadly, theapplication of a spring and lever-arm or its equivalent to a lid turningupon a hinge, as such devices have before been applied to the doors ofdwellings for the purpose of causing them to close antomatically; but,

Having fully described my invention and pointed out its special utility,I claim- The match-safe A, having its lid B applied and arranged tooperate in relation to the same in the modes described and set forth,for thepurpose specified.

A. KLINE.

VVitneSSes: I

BENJ. MORISON, JAMES P. DIX.

